Paula Begoun and John Hamblin

You've probably seen those ads for beauty products that make you roll your eyes over the extravagant claims on what will magically make you look years younger.

Cosmetics critic and author Paula Begoun

You've probably seen those ads for beauty products that make you roll your eyes over the extravagant claims on what will magically make you look years younger.

Paula Begoun is a woman who has called the cosmetics industry on all this nonsense.

Paula wanted to be a neurologist when she was growing up, and she did study science at college. But although she loved the science, the maths part remained beyond her so she didn't get to finish her degree. Instead she became a make-up artist. She'd been interested in skin and beauty since her struggles with acne. From the age of eleven she'd spent many a night crying herself to sleep over her angry, inflamed skin. She went from dermatologist to dermatologist and product to product looking for an answer: "in those days they didn't really have anything to treat acne. It was horrendous."

Searching for effective skin products became a quest and a passion for her. When she was working on the cosmetics counters she used to query the contents of the myriad of jars and bottles she was supposed to sell to customers. Her findings led to her first book Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal, which gained her a cult following. "I thought then I was done. But the industry is ever-changing so my work has taken on a life of its own". Her book Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me is now in its seventh edition.

Paula's personal life has also benefited from her extensive travel - she's enjoying a Bollywood romance! She met her new man through an international dating agency, and as a Bollywood fan she was taken with the idea of dating a man who lived in that very place. "If you watch Bollywood movies -the men are just so over the top romantic and they worship women, they're not mean or nasty. It took me to this age, to be romanced!

Former Play School presenter John Hamblin

John Hamblin is so much a part of most Australian childhoods.

He'd worked for many years as an actor before he became the quintessential host of Play School. He didn't even want to audition at first, but the producer kept calling him up and he eventually agreed to go along, but he didn't bother to learn the script. He just did his own thing, which actually impressed everyone no end and he was given the job.

His unique style brought some glorious pantomime to the show. Noni Hazelhurst is quoted as saying "Funny John, as he was known, wasn't acting. He was just being. That was the key. John was 'in the moment.'"

In England John played in everything from Shakespeare to Oscar Wild, and after coming to Australia as a Ten Pound Pom he acted in dozens of TV dramas like The Last Bastion and Sons and Daughters, but it's his years on the icononic Play School that he's really remembered for.

His friend Peter Richman persuaded him to let it all be put down on paper -warts and all. The biography is called Open Wide, Come Inside.

You can either listen to each Conversations interview by clicking on the audio or you can download each interview as an mp3 by right clicking on the blue heading under the audio.